Variance component and heritability of some fruit characters in olive (Olea europaea L.)

The combining abilities for nine quantity characters in olive were examined to understand the type of gene action governing these characters, and to identify olive genotypes suitable for use as parents in breeding for quality improvement. The F1 hybrids created from a one-way diallel crosses among six olive genotypes at 1996. They were evaluated in field condition and data were recorded in 4 years (2004–2007) on 9 fruits. The general and specific combining ability effects (GCA and SCA) differed significantly for most of the characters, indicating that both additive and non-additive genetic effects played a role in the heritability of these characters. The estimated broad sense heritability (hB2) for all characters resulted varying from 0.31 to 0.86. While, the narrow-sense heritability (hN2) varied from 0.17 to 0.28. Genotypes Zard and Roghani were good combiners mainly for the improvement of fruit weight, percentage of dry matter, fruit width, fruit length and oil percentage. Variance component and heritability of fruit characters can be useful for olive breeding programs.